Not Surprised
by Gilari
Summary: - "I shouldn't be surprised," Rose thought to herself as she watched the Doctor embrace the petite blond. Rose jumps to all the wrong conclusions when she sees the Doctor hugging another woman. Post reunion story, spoilers for 4x06, Doctor/Rose


They were together in a London chip shop. Laughing together, eating chips, basking in the glow of each other's company. Rose and Donna had begun to enter into the type of conversation the Doctor liked least: swapping stories about him. Mostly because these stories were rarely ever flattering.

"…and then," Rose said, giggling, " he has the nerve to stick his finger in and _sample of the marmalade_ as if we didn't have to rescue the little girl at all!"

Donna sagged against the table for support.

"He's _always_ been like that then?" she asked. "I thought maybe it was just with me."

"Oh, no. he's been like that ever since his regeneration. Rose said.

"Oral fixation, that's what he's got," Donna replied.

Both women went off into another gale of laughter.

The Doctor was not sure he liked it when his two companions joined forced against him. There was something slightly creepy about it. Taking advantage of their distractedness, he stole a chip from Rose's plate. If he had stolen it from Donna, she would have smacked his hand.

He ate the chip, scowling at the two women.

"You two aren't being fair," he complained. "I just have a heightened and finely tuned sense of taste in this regeneration, that's all. No use letting that important sense go to waste."

Donna pulled a face.

"Is that what you call licking everything in sight?"

She and Rose went off into laughter again.

The Doctor idly stared out the window at his side. He _knew_ having two companions at a time was a bad idea. The trouble was, he had only just found Rose again a few weeks ago, and Donna refused to leave him. So two it was. Not that it was bad, except when they got like this.

He was watching people go past, when a face in the crowd startled him out of his revelry. He sat up straight. No. It couldn't be. But it sure looked like it. Same long blond hair, now loose and hanging about her shoulders, same smiling blue eyes.

"Donna, Rose, stay here. Just… stay here," he instructed, before taking off at a dead run.

Rose looked out of the window after him.

"Where did he get off to?" she asked.

Donna shrugged.

"No idea. Where does he ever get off to?" she asked.

They both looked out the large front window of the shop, which was directly to the side of their table.

The Doctor ran up to a blond woman, and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around, and there was instant recognition in her face. Delightedly, she through herself into his arms, and he spun her around as much as he could on the crowded sidewalk, both laughing at once. The Doctor leaned down and kissed her forehead fondly as she hugged him tighter.

"My stars!" Donna exclaimed. "We thought she was dead!"

Rose turned away from the window, an unruly tear making its way down her cheek.

"Don't know what I was thinking," she sighed, swiping angrily at the tear. "I should have known better. I suppose he's had one on every planet since I've been gone."

Donna was too excited to notice Rose's shift in mood. At least at first.

"It's Jenny!" she said. "We thought she had died. Took a bullet for the Doctor, she did. He took that pretty hard. I guess she _was_ like him after all!"

"Don't know why I thought I was the only one. Again," Rose said, sniffling. She snatched a napkin from the holder on the table, and blew her nose.

Donna turned to her.

"Are you _crying_, love?" she asked.

Rose shook her head.

"I keep thinking I'm special. I keep thinking that it's me and only me that he loves. But of course, he would have girls all over the place. I should just get used to it."

"Rose… no… that's not it at all," Donna started, but Rose held up her hand to silence her.

"Don't try to tell me it's not! He told me once that he lives for such a long time, and in comparison human lives are so short. Of course it makes sense for him to have several girls on the go," Rose waved a finger at the blond girl that the Doctor still held tightly in his arms. "I should have never deceived myself into thinking that he loved me," she said softly.

To her great surprise, Donna laughed.

"Don't laugh. Please. I already know how pathetic that sounds," Rose said.

Donna put her arm around Rose's shoulders.

"You've got it all wrong, love. First of all, I've never seen a man – Time Lord, whatever – so in love with anyone as the Doctor is with you. I told you already – he kept mentioning you, and mooning around, and generally acting irritatingly like a man with his heart broken. Second of all, that's not the Doctor's lover, that's his daughter."

Rose's eyes grew large.

"His _daughter_?" she asked. Then she looked down. "That makes the situation the same."

Donna frowned.

"How?"

"Well, you have to have someone to have a daughter with. Either way, it's not me."

Donna's eyebrow shot up.

"Do you need someone else? I would have thought you had traveled the universe enough to know that everything is possible, though not probable. Listen, love, it's a really long story, but somebody took his DNA without his permission and processed it and made it into a girl. _That_ girl," Donna pointed out the window. "She's a genetic mix up from him, but he seemed to regard her as his daughter. He is both mother and father to her. We called her Jenny because she was a generational clone-type thing. She jumped in front of a gun to save his life, and was shot. We thought she was dead. She must have regenerated."

A look of joy rushed over Rose's face.

"I'm so glad!" she breathed. "I'm so glad there's no one else."

"I don't think anyone could replace you. And trust me, there were people who tried."

It was Rose's turn to raise her eyebrow at Donna.

A look of horror crossed Donna's face.

"Not me! Definitely not me! But the girl before me, Martha, fancied the Doctor and he was having none of it. So there you go."

Rose hazarded a glance out the window, and watched the Doctor walk into the shop, his arm slung around the shoulders of the petite blond. Both were grinning widely.

"Rose!" the Doctor called. "Rose, there's someone I want to you meet. Rose, this is my daughter, Jenny. She regenerated, Donna! Just like I said she would. If only we had waited a little longer!"

Jenny smiled shyly at Rose.

"Hi," she said. "Dad was just telling me about you."

"Good things, I hope," Rose said good-naturedly.

Jenny turned to Donna with a huge grin, and hugged the older woman tightly.

"I've been looking for you and Dad ever since I came back to life! It's so good to see you again!" Jenny said.

Donna laughed, and hugged her back.

"And you too, sweetheart. And you too."

The Doctor slid in beside Rose and put a reassuring arm around her shoulders.

"She's my daughter," he said, his eyes not leaving Jenny as she chattered happily to Donna.

"I know. Donna told me the whole story. When I saw you, I was so afraid you had replaced me."

"Replace you? Never," the Doctor replied, pulling her close and kissing her hair.

Rose took a moment to revel in his closeness, before pulling away slightly.

"She's blond," Rose commented, giggling.

"Always did fancy blonds," the Doctor replied, a cheeky smiled spreading over his face.

_Author's Note: Because a meeting between Rose and Jenny would create all sorts of misunderstandings. And Because I am just so darn happy that she came back to life, which leaves open the possibility that she could be coming back in some other episode. Just this once, everybody lives!_


End file.
